Shops you are surprised are still going

[fajitaaaa]

WHSMITHS - who is buying from them? Anything other than a emergency magazine for the train and maybe a bottle of water? But some of their stores are HUGE!

FAT FACE - always a massive sale on!

I love Waterstones, it's my favourite shop, ours is always busy, lots of teens in there too. Amazon, especially if it's Prime, often isn't cheap and their delivery has gone to hell if you aren't central. The Waterstones card pretty much equals 10% off, and they have sales and offers too. We've just had 50% off hardbacks.

The only thing my 19yo wanted for Christmas was Waterstones vouchers. He loves an hour or so in a book shop. Amazon is not the same thing at all.

Private Equity buyouts / vultures are to blame for the demise of many formerly loved and well invested brands like Boots (Superdrug too). They use borrowed money to acquire the brands, often don’t pay the suppliers what they are fairly owed, take out a load of cost, don’t invest and run them for cash and dividends before offloading again to the next vulture to pick over its carcass.

I still love Waterstones as I enjoy browsing books, their 3 for 2s where I often impulse buy and the staff are generally very friendly

Totally agree re WHSmith that the travel element saves it, the high street stores are absolutely dreadful and in my local one some of the stock is literally dusty, it’s like it’s been there for decades.

Near me there is a Clinton's, a Lakeland and a Rymans. They all sell tat. I don't understand their appeal?

Possibly is what will happen. What's worrying about that is what will happen to all the jobs in shops- delivery, cleaning, shop staff, security.
Also what will happen to our town and city centres as buildings empty.

This was intended to answer the pp who said they should all be put out if their misery and go online only.

I never go to Clinton's and don't know what Ryman's is- we don't have them in the north-east I think. I do buy stuff at Lakeland but not often enough to think I help keep them going. I think they sell some good stuff.

The perils of online only were seen this Christmas when we were all at the mercy of a series of shite couriers or striking royal mail

i reverted to doing most of my shopping in physical stores again, and it’s then you realise how sad and tired the high streets have become and how poor the choice is compared to >10 years ago.

I’m convinced Amazon are now putting up prices now we are all such a captive audience

But what do you actually buy there, if you don’t mind my asking? I am genuinely curious, not meaning to suggest it isn’t useful to you!

No idea. It's horrible stuff and the staff are snotty.

Matalan

What was a shiny new retail park store circa 15 years ago appears to have not been touched ever since, the doors are scuffed and marked, the fixtures such as the clothes rails etc are dated. They did stock decent branded underwear, socks etc for a number of years e.g. Calvin klein, but nowadays these are now brands I’ve never really heard of before.

Similar to Peacocks. Can’t see how they sell enough product to make the margin to cover the cost of the store.

I saw a TV advert for Hays travel tonight and had to check which century I was in.

Very early 80's.

I really like Lush. I love the bath bombs, face packs etc. But I fucking hate getting pounced on when I go in there. I just want to have a browse in peace. I don't need some bouncy teen getting up in my face every 2 minutes.

Matalan. I don't know one person who shops there.

Also Zara. Whenever you go in there it looks like everyone has picked up everything and thrown it across the room. Like a massive pillow fight but with clothes.

Our large shopping centre is being redeveloped for housing, leisure, some retail and green spaces. Done well it will be exactly what's needed and saves our green spaces from development.

Upper Crust can be found at lots of big train stations. The only time I ever buy something is when I’m going on a long train journey and there’s a big queue at the other shops.

Well, I mean, if you like a bit of eczema…!

Shoezone! Always see a meme about how they must be money laundering and it makes me laugh

Argos, there’s never anything in stock and you can’t see anything before you buy it.

Apart from WHS (of course), Argos was my first thought as well. I still never quite know if some of their old shops are still open or not, as they seem to remain with all the branding but look dead inside – and it’s not like they usually have big piles of stock inside as a clue. Have they all/some of them moved into Sainsbury’s already or is that still in process?

They’re basically like the internet in shop form – except that the internet has magnitudes more stuff available, often at similar prices; although, granted, if it’s in stock, you can buy it and walk away with it immediately, which not even Amazon prime can offer. Also, they used to be good for very cheap and cheerful (veneered chipboard) furniture, but they seem to have stopped that now and gone upmarket – which I would have thought now makes them a poor cousin of places like Ikea.

One thing that baffles me in ALL large shops is how many of them have loads of tills, taking up a huge amount of prime selling space, that are never ever opened. I would have assumed that they would at least be in use in the run-up to Christmas, but no. Some of them are effectively fenced off with permanently-stored stock and trolleys. What’s the point of that, then?

I also never understand why Aldi and Lidl have seven tills and, not only never use more than 2 or 3 at any time, but will also close till 5, then open till 2, then re-open till 5 again and close till 2 only 5 minutes later. It would make sense if they had set people on set tills, who obviously stop for breaks and toilet visits; but they don’t allocate staff to a till at all – it’s the same people who re-stock the shelves and take all the used baskets back to near the front door!

For me it’s the Nespresso shops, does anyone buy the pods and machines in a physical shop? Also Whittards? Who likes tea that much?

I had assumed Whittards was mainly used by foreign tourists.

I'm not the PP. But last few purchases...black card, white pens, brass split pins, blank flash cards, sepia pens, masking fluid, chocolate coins, there will have been other bits too. A hole punch will be the next purchase.

I honestly think that the high street as we know it is soon going to pass into history. We will still have some shops and cafes etc., but I can see them being spaced out in the middle of residential areas, like local corner shops are now, rather than in long dedicated retail-only (at least on the ground floor anyway) rows.

Maybe also some out-of-town retail parks for bigger stores.

Local councils certainly haven't helped with their greed in business rates and prices for car parking. There's an enormous shopping centre a littler way away from us, with all the really big shops and thousands of car parking spaces - all completely free to use, for as long as you like. They could make tens of thousands of pounds a day if they charged for parking, but they obviously understand that offering free parking brings in more sales than they would make. I know that councils don't directly benefit from the sales, but that affects how much they can then charge in business rates - which I presume is currently £0 for all of the many, many boarded-up premises.

WH Smith - specialist magazines you cant get anywhere else without a subscription. FIL loves one about tractors.

You can find out any and everything you could possibly want to know about tractors online - but do tell your FIL to type carefully if he happens to be an MP!!

I get some nice notebooks from Smiths regularly. They also house our local post office so maybe that makes them some money somehow.

I don't know much about Fatface but often wonder why someone would want to buy anything from a brand with that name. It'd have to be an amazing dress etc for me to buy clothing that insults me.